


I WAS A SAVAGE

by SILKCUT



Series: ɪɴꜱᴄʀɪʙᴇᴅ ʙʏ ꜱɪʟᴋᴄᴜᴛ [9]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Crossover, Gen, Inscribed by SILKCUT, Twitter Roleplay Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29064723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SILKCUT/pseuds/SILKCUT
Summary: ❛You know what you love,❜ Rumpelstiltskin murmured, pointing a crooked, scaly finger at her, ❛...ɴᴏᴡ ɢᴏ ᴋɪʟʟ ɪᴛ.❜
Series: ɪɴꜱᴄʀɪʙᴇᴅ ʙʏ ꜱɪʟᴋᴄᴜᴛ [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132040





	I WAS A SAVAGE

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Ｒｅｇｉｎａ Ｍｉｌｌｓ

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## ❛ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴛᴇʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴡᴀs ᴀ 🅢🅐🅥🅐🅖🅔  
ғᴜᴄᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ ʜᴏʀsᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ ❜

## 

##  **༻✧**

What was once a lush evergreen becomes a disquieting gloom as soon as night descends upon the ᴇɴᴄʜᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ғᴏʀᴇsᴛ.

A queen with a vendetta stalked the dank enclosure below a castle keep. The one prison inside it was forged in very old magic that's meant to hold captive a certain reptilian broker of deals known to all far and wide as Rumpelstiltskin.

There's a surge of something monstrous that thrummed across the pillars and stone of this remote chamber, warning anyone who dared trek it. She was not fearful at all, for she's a woman who had mastered fear itself and on occasion gleefully struck the innocent and meek with its venom.

What horrors can frighten one who was mentored by a horrific curiosity anyway? For that was the role Rumpelstiltskin played for Regina; a surrogate parent and teacher who saw her heart's potential for power, and the ever deepening dark it cradled.

At the moment, though, she had displeased him. Regina wanted to wield and unleash the ᴅᴀʀᴋ ᴄᴜʀsᴇ, and she was so close to victory already but at the last minute she seemed to have gotten the final ingredient wrong. 

All Regina had to do was to sacrifice the heart of the one she loves. Believing she understood what it entailed, she dug out the heart of her prized steed and used that for the curse. He was the only childhood friend she ever had whom she spent many summers riding across the pastures with; away from her overbearing mother and towards whatever freedom she could scavenge. 

It wasn't enough, Rumpelstiltskin said. He grabbed her throat and squeezed as he pulled her closer to his jail cell. The heat and stench of his breath upon her face almost made her wince, but Regina steadied herself long enough to listen to his next words.

❛This is the curse to end all curses. It requires the greatest sacrifice. All magic comes with a price, and what you want has the steepest one.❜

After another hollow heartbeat or two, Rumpelstiltskin let her go. She could only stare blankly at him though there remains the same fire in her eyes. Her will was resolute. Her revenge shall be completed. And she will be made whole again once Snow White has fallen at last.

❛You know what you love,❜ Rumpelstiltskin murmured, pointing a crooked, scaly finger at her, ❛...ɴᴏᴡ ɢᴏ ᴋɪʟʟ ɪᴛ.❜

## ➷

The first sight that greeted her when she walked the threshold of the castle that was once hers was Snow White and her injured Prince Charming. 

Regina could smell the blood in her dress, an indication that she had just given birth to her ugly spawn moments before the Dark Curse will engulf everything. She saw no sign of the child just yet, but she was in no hurry to glimpse it, seeing as it might as well be a corpse already.

Her attention, as always, has zeroed in on Snow White, the stepdaughter she never wanted from a marriage forced upon her. Regina savored this delicious moment of agony as the younger woman wept and gnashed her teeth, pleading for her to stop this madness and just forgive what has happened in the past.

"We were a family once, you and I," Snow White whimpered. She looked at Regina with those same doe eyes that always deceived people and made them think she's perfectly good and worth the fight.

Instead of a verbal response, Regina reached down and tugged a fistful of the girl's ebony hair. She almost ripped it out.

❛Stop crying, dear,❜ she mocked, ❛In a few minutes you wouldn't even remember him--let alone loved him.❜

❛Why do you keep doing this?❜ Snow White tried to push her hand away, but Regina was quicker, and she grabbed her by the chin, the nails burrowing onto the soft skin.

Choking out the words in seething fury, she retorted, ❛Because ᴛʜɪs ɪs ᴍʏ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ!❜

Shadow and mist started to sweep across the Enchanted Forest until its cloying presence finally reached the castle. This was unlike any other storm. There's a startling silence about it that was more terrifying than any thunderous cry. 

Releasing her grip on Snow White, Regina stepped away and spread her arms expectantly. Her eyes glistened with fresh tears that reflected the sickening joy that rose from the pit of her stomach and filled her throat and face. She was owed this.

The queen remembered only one thing before the Dark Curse swallowed her whole:

Her father's face. 

And the look of utter disbelief in his eyes when she buried her hand deep into his chest cavity and tore his heart out.

## ➷

The minute she came back to her senses, Regina realized that she was sitting on a red leather armchair inside a room she had never seen before and yet, somehow, every inch of it felt familiar. 

Monochrome black and white walls filled the spacious office whilst a large oval mirror with a silver frame designed with tangled vines and rubies hung to left side next to a fireplace. Its hearth was beginning to cool down, leaving only ashes and charred wood on its wake. 

Rising slowly from the armchair, Regina glanced at her surroundings with wary irritation. She's missing something, and it frustrated her that she could not recall. It was only after she sauntered towards the mirror and checked her reflection that it occurred to her that she must have just had the same bad dream from before.

Well, it was a memory; a little reminder of what she had to lose in order to gain something else. 

❛Madam Mayor?❜

She recognized the voice, so she saw no reason to acknowledge him. Regina instead appraised her looks; she had long shed her dark silks and majestic gowns for what was more befitting of this era and place. Her cascading dark locks of hair was trimmed shorter now too, framing her chin and jawline just right so that her intensely charcoal black eyes were unmistakable. 

They're the very first thing anyone would see upon meeting her, if not the last.

Yes, in spite of the slight changes to her appearance, she still possessed the same look of a woman who always got what she wanted, regardless of the price.

Just like when she seized control of certain portions of this town from the shadows only two weeks ago, deeming herself readily as its new Mayor. It hasn't been made official yet, but Regina was a patient woman who is far more strategic in her approach to ruling than people would ever give her credit for. Of course, ruling over a chaotic, parasitic, cannibalizing hell-hole of a town sounded impossible in all accounts, but such a daunting enterprise could only fit someone of Regina's ambition and steel.

❛Are you ready to leave, Regina?❜

With a scoff, she finally responded to him, ❛Don't get too familiar with me, Sydney. And I'll leave when I want to.❜

In another life, this man was her most loyal servant, a genie who fell in love with her and whose devotion she exploited every chance she got. He never complained either, even after she had imprisoned him inside a mirror so he could act as her spy. This allowed him to move through any clear surface of water and other looking-glasses.

The curse she endowed him with stayed intact to this day and in this new world, but she did need a tangible servant to attend to her needs in this wretched town, and so Regina granted him the ability to shape shift into a solid form once more.

The surface of the silver mirror turned liquid as Sydney emerged from it. He was of wiry built with salt-and-pepper style of hair that blended well with his olive complexion. Donned in a freshly tailored grey suit, he could only give Regina a grim yet still trusting smile. She never returned it.

❛Have you covered more miles as I've ordered you to?❜ Regina strolled to her desk next, the clicking sound of her heels hollow against the carpeted floor. 

Once she was standing on the window next to the desk, she pushed the maroon curtains to the side and glanced across the yard behind her large estate. It was severely bare save perhaps a single apple tree she had planted on the very first day she came here. It hasn't borne any fruits yet but the soil was fertile and the roots were strong beneath it.

❛Tell me what you've seen. What sort of dangerous folk do I have to meet this time?❜

Sydney cleared his throat before he replied, ❛That would largely depend on which ones you prefer to capture tonight. Average humans to turn into slaves? Demons to add to the Queensguard?❜

He took a step forward as he adjusted the left sleeve of his suit, ❛How about the most foul menace from all these assorted horrors? Are we ready to deal with them?❜

Sydney meant the vampires, of course. But Regina was saving that kind of monsters for something special.

❛It wouldn't matter,❜ Her blood-red lips curved into a smile as she turned slowly to meet his gaze, ❛One by one they will all bow to me soon.❜

❛Well then,❜ Sydney straightened his posture, ❛There is a woman I've spied on in the last two days whom you might find more worthwhile than the pests you've been collecting. So, madam mayor, we mustn't dally now.❜

She would have chosen that time to scold him more pointedly for sounding as if he was rushing her, but Regina would need to conserve her energy if she's going to mingle again with the questionable populace of sᴜɴɴʏᴅᴀʟᴇ. The irony of its namesake didn't escape her, and originally she intended to have that changed as part of her long mayoral to-do list, but the name soon grew on her.

It was delightfully misleading, and Regina can appreciate a twisted sense of humor here and there.

Aside from her lackey, she didn't care to bring anything within her person for tonight's stroll, seeing as she could always conjure up whatever she would need later on. Magic in this place was treacherous, channeling more erratic energy flows than what was normal or at least what she was used to. Still, she found that a delicate balance was needed to be reinforced as far as casting spells are concerned.

Regina, after all, could still employ her most favored magical tactic.

❛Fine. This woman you speak of better be as good as you seem to suggest. But before that, let's stop by the armory first.❜

There must be something off in her expression after she said it because Sydney looked back at her almost...repulsed. However, he schooled his features soon enough and merely gave a curt nod as she led the way.

  


## ➷

The cacophony of beating hearts resonated across the armory, and only the bolted doors plus a simple concealment spell kept the sounds from being heard outside. Regina often found solace here at night since her arrival to Sunnydale, listening to lives she had imprisoned after she ripped out the hearts of these humans and demons alike, enchanting said muscle in the process. 

The red glow of a beating heart was magnificent—the way it pulsated between her fingers—the heat and the deep rhythm of its beat—ah, it’s intoxicating just to cradle it! As she would clutch her hand around one and then look to the individual whom she had taken it from, the self-proclaimed Mayor can’t help the surge of giddiness that overcomes her then. 

But nothing compares to the power she gets off on each time she would crush a heart until it crumbles to dust. 

Regina never really believed that the infamous moniker ‘ᴇᴠɪʟ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ’ ever applied to her back in the Enchanted Forest. It certainly didn't capture the essence of her darkness enough. Still, anyone can look at her life and the choices she had made and judge away all they like, but unless they walk a mile on her shoes first, she knew that they’d be hard pressed to consider her a villain—let alone call her that to her face. 

But if they were so quick to cast her into a villain role, then so be it. 

Regina will be the most reviled and feared villain of them all. 

And Sunnydale would soon have its hands full (if it hasn't already, given the rampant chaos of things) now that it has a new Mayor in town.

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**[@ABITTERLONGING](https://twitter.com/abitterlonging) **

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